Urethane crude processing aid



United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Tough urethane crude rubbers are rendered millable by the use therein of fatty acids.

This application is a continuation of application Serial No. 589,164 filed October 24, 1966, now abandoned, which was a continuation of Serial No. 187,956 filed April 24, 1962, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to a novel processing aid for urethane crude rubbers. More particularly the present invention relates to the use of fatty acids to substantially improve the processibility of urethane crude rubbers.

The object of the present invention is to provide a novel processing aid which will improve the processing characteristics of urethane crudes without significantly affecting the properties thereof.

In the fabrication of urethane crudes many are prepared which have limited, or no, practical utility because of the relative toughness of the material. A tough crude, within the meaning of the present invention, is one having a Mooney viscosity value in excess of 120 under test conditions ML 4 at 212 F. Crudes which are relatively easy to process under these test conditions are those having a Mooney viscosity of about :15. In order to compound a urethane crude with the vulcanizing agents, accelerators, fillers, stabilizers, etc., needed to prepare a useful product therefrom, it is necessary for example, to mill the crude on a rubber milling machine in order to place the crude in a physical condition in which it is more receptive to the facile and even dispersion of the adjuvant materials therein. When the crude is a relatively tough material, the milling time needed to band the crude, i.e., the time needed to properly prepare the crude for the reception of the other compounding materials, is prohibitively long for economic and technical reasons. Attempts have been made by those in the art to improve the processability of the relatively tougher crude urethane materials by incorporating in the crude, either while or after the crude is being made, plasticizers such as beeswax as disclosed in US. 2,844,554. The amounts of these materials which are needed to impart good processing qualities to the crude materials are of such a magnitude, however, that the resulting products are rendered too soft for a great many commercial uses. Attempts to use stearic acid and like materials, by those in the art, to improve the processing characteristics of urethane crudes has not been successful to date (US. 2,844,554).

It has now been unexpectedly found that the processing characteristics of urethane crudes can be substantially improved without significantly affecting the properties of the products produced therefrom if an aliphatic fatty acid is incorporated therein as a processing acid. By the term aliphatic fatty acid, as used in connection with the present invention, it is meant a straight chained aliphatic fatty acid containing approximately 6 to 25 carbon atoms. The fatty acids may be solids or liquid and may be saturated or unsaturated. Stearic acid is the preferred of these processing acids because of its additional value as a lubricant. About 0.1 to 2.0 and preferably 0.5 to 1.0

3,402,135 Patented Sept. 17, 1968 'ice parts by weight of the processing aids of the present invention are used per hundred parts by weight of the urethane crude being treated therewith. These quantities of processing aids are based on a crude prepared from a prepolymer having an NCO content of approximately 3%. As the NCO content of the prepolymer from which the crude is prepared decreases or increases from 3%, proportionally larger or smaller, respectively, amounts of the processing aids are needed to impart the same effect to the crude. The processing aids are preferably added to the crude during the preparation thereof.

They may be added to the crude during the milling or mixing thereof but they are not as efl ective when used under these conditions and such a procedure requires the use of two to three times as much of the processing aid to obtain the same processing effect. The use of higher amounts of the processing aids, moreover, results in the preparation of correspondingly softer materials. Materials that are too soft have limited, if any, commercial utility.

It has also been unexpectedly found that the use of the fatty acid processing aids of the present invention, allows a urethane crude to be banded on production size mills Within 15 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the Mooney viscosity of the finished product, whereas the same crudes processed without these processing aids would require about 15 to 45 minutes milling time before banding thereof would be effected. The use of these processing aids, therefore, substantially reduces the heat history of the crudes treated therewith. The use of the processing aids of the present invention, moreover, produces the ease of processing effect without significantly affecting the properties of the resulting product which cannot be readily done when other materials known to the art have been used for this purpose, such as plasticizers and rubber peptizers.

The use of the processing aids of the present invention, furthermore, allows for a control of the Mooney viscosity of the finished product as a function of the processing aid content thereof with the NCO/ additive hydrogen ratio of the product also taken into consideration. Generally, as the NCO/ active hydrogen ratio increases it is necessary to increase the amount of the processing aid needed to obtain the same effect. The processing aid apparently helps in breaking down the polymer during the banding or mixing thereof. Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows the urethane crude to be compounded on a hot mill which has decided technical advantages, for some applications, over cold milling. Because of the lubricating features of the processing aids of the present invention, moreover, there is relatively little, if any, adhesion or sticking of the crude to the mill or mixer during the milling or mixing thereof. I

As noted above, it is preferable that the processing aid be incorporated into the crude as the crude is being made. Once the crude is made the processing aid can only be effectively incorporated therein if the crude is first banded on the mill, which procedure would substantially nullify the use of a processing aid at all.

The use of the processing aids of the present invention also results in a substantial lessening in the time needed on the mill to cause the disappearance of laciness in the crude, i.e., the disappearance of hollow pockets in the banded polymer. The presence of such pockets tends to prevent an even distribution of adjuvants into the banding crude and compounding of the crude with fillers, vulcanizing agents, etc., is usually held up until the laciness in a crude has disappeared.

The urethane crudes which may be treated with the processing aids of the present invention may be of the polyester, polyether or mixed polyester-polyether types 4 and they may .be of the sulfur or peroxide ,curable of the batches of crude prepared was about 1,000 grams. varieties thereof. The crudes were prepared from prepolymers containing As noted above, the processing aids of the present invarious levels of NCO content at an NCO/ OH ratio of vention are preferably incorporated into the urethane 1.025 with various quantities of stearic acid. The physical crudes to be treated therewith during the preparation properties and processability characteristics of the crudes of the crude. The fatty acid processing aid may be inthus prepared are shown below. In milling the crudes a corporated into the crude during any step in the preparalaboratory sized mill was used.

Mooney Mooney Viscosity Scorch Stress-Strain Characteristics of the Crude (45/287 F.) Stearic Percent of the Crude Values Crude Acid NCO in Processability of MIA (212 F.) of Crude,

No. Content Prepolymer the Crude Pt. Modulus, p.s.i. TS, v E, Duro TR PS,

of Crude Age 7 Value Rise at p.s.i. percent A p.l.1. percent (days) 250F., 200% 300% 500%- Minutes 1 None 1 2 0.05 1 1 3 0.25 s 1 cult to process. 4 0. 75 2.69 Lacy (3 min), dillis 72 18 480 815 2, 035 3,750 585 67 245 23.4

cult to process. d 15 5 None 3 03 Very lacy, tough 5 [Lucy (4 min.) 1 6 03 lVery lacy, tough 8 Lacy (2 min), easy 1 Lto pz'gcess.) d fl 8 racy nun. 1 1- 1 cult to process.

do 15 ....d 22 No laeine 5, easy to process. 8 0.75 3.03 do s Lacy (2mi11.),lairly 15 easy to process. 3.69 Very lacy, tough 1 3.09 do 1 Lacy (3 min.) fairly 1 3.09 dillieult to 8 process. 15 Lacy (2 min), easy 1 12 0.025 3.69 to process. 8 62 23 515 080 3,295 3,810 535 69 285 21.8

15 50 [Lacy (1 min), easy 1 28 13 0.50 to process. 2 2g 31 460 610 3,400 4,480 565 70 240 20.2

1 [No laciness, easy to 1 22 14 0. 75 3.691 process. 18 20 31 615 1,115 3,475 4,910 590 70 270 26.5

No'rE.p.s.i.=1bs. per square inch; TS=Tensile strength; E=Elongation; TR=Tcar resistance; PS=Pern1anent set. The time required for laeiness to disappear from banding stock is shown in parentheses.

tion thereof. It the processing aid is added while there is EXAMPLE 2 still free diisocyanate present in the reaction mixture sufiicient amounts of the fatty acid should be added so as to compensate for the small amount of the processing aid that will react with the diisocyanate.

The following examples are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not intended as a limitation upon the scope thereof.

Additional batches of urethane crudes were prepared as in Example 1, from prepolymers containing 3.0% NCO at -NCO/OH ratios of 1.05 and 1.10. Various of the processing aids of the present invention were used to reduce the Mooney viscosity values of these crudes, which, without the processing aid therein would have Mooney viscosities of 200+. The crudes containing the processing EXAMPLE 1 aids were easy to process.

The use of stearic acid as a processing aid according to the teachings of the present invention is illustrated in this Processmg Ald Used -NCO/OI-I 56 2i??? r r rd example. The various urethane crudes treated with this Acid Amount, Ratio 1 processing aid were ethylene-propylene adipate/ toluene dipercent Values isocyanate/glycerol alpha allyl ether reaction products. In 8-? g2 g2 p p ng these reaction products, N terminated hy stetrtcftiiij::::::::::::::::: 0:5 1:05 cue-propylene adipate prepolymers of various NCO con- 0 B3 3-2 g 2g tents were prepared and charged to a one gallon can and D :jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjluu 110 1:10 34 an NCO analysis made on the prepolymer. The prepolymer was then heated to 100 C. and glycerol alpha allyl ether We claim:

was added to each of the prepolymers in such quantities as 1. A urethane crude rubber composition having imto prepare a crude having a desired NCO/OH ratio. After 65 proved processing characteristics comprising an unmilled the resulting reaction product had been mixed for a /2. urethane crude rubber having incorporated therein a hour longer at 100 C. the desired amount of processing straight chained aliphatic fatty acid of about 6 to 25 caraid was mixed into each of the batches of crude for about bon atoms, and where said rubber in the absence of said 5 to 15 minutes. The molten crude product was then placed incorporated fatty acid has a Mooney viscosity value in exin coated (with at Dow Corning Silicone product DC-20) cess of 120, and where said fatty acid is incorporated in cans and the cans and their contents were then placed in said rubber during the preparation of said rubber, and ovens, set at -120 C. for 40-50 hours. The cured said fatty acid being incorporated into said rubber in an crudes were then removed from the ovens and allowed to amount proportionately equal to 0.1 to 2.0 parts by weight age at room temperature for 24 hours prior to running the of fatty acid per 100 parts by weight or urethane crude Mooney viscosity test procedures thereon.The size of each 7 rubber based upon a urethane crude rubber having an NCO content of approximately 3%, said urethane crude rubber being the reaction product of an isocyanato terminated polyester prepolymer and glycerol alpha allyl ether.

2. A composition according to claim 1 wherein said fatty acid is incorporated in an amount of about 0.5 to 1.0 part by weight per 100 parts by weight of said rubber.

3. A composition according to claim 1 wherein said fatty acid is stearic acid.

4. A composition according to claim 1 wherein said fatty acid is oleic acid.

5. A composition according to claim 1 wherein said fatty acid is palmitic acid.

6. A composition according to claim 1 wherein said rubber polyester based rubber prepared from an NCO terminated prepolymer having an --NCO content of approximately 3%.

7. A process for producing urethane crude rubber compositions having improved processing characteristics which comprises incorporating a straight chain aliphatic fatty acid of about 6 to 25 carbon atoms into an unmilled urethane crude rubber and where said fatty acid is incorporated into said rubber during the preparation of said rubber, and where said rubber in the absence of said incorporated fatty acid has a Mooney viscosity value in excess of 120, and where said fatty acid is incorporated into said rubber in an amount proportionately equal to 0.1 to 2.0 parts by weight of fatty acid per 100 parts by weight of urethane crude rubber based upon a urethane crude rubber having an NCO content of approximately 3%, said urethane crude rubber being the reaction product of an isocyanato terminated polyester prepolymer and glycerol alpha allyl ether.

-8. A process according to claim 7 wherein said fatty acid is incorporated into said rubber in an amount of about 0.5 to 1.0 part by weight per parts by weight of said rubber.

9. A process according to claim 7 wherein said fatty acid is stearic acid.

10 A process according to claim 7 wherein said fatty acid is oleic acid.

11. A process according to claim 7 wherein said fatty acid is palmitic acid.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,333,922 11/19'43 Foster 26022 2,844,554 7/1958 Nichols et al. 260-22 2,872,430 2/ 1959 Parker et al. 260-22 3,015,636 1/1962 Elmer 26018 3,115,481 12/1963 Pigott et a1. 260--18 3,130,175 4/1964 Peter et al. 260-18 3,227,663 1/1966 Klesper et a1. 260-22 FOREIGN PATENTS 852,379 10/ 1960 Great Britain.

DONALD E. CZAJA, Primary Examiner.

R. W. GRIFFIN, Assistant Examiner. 

